BURY Council have gone hi-tech in their latest bid to find out what the public wants from them.

They have prepared a document on the Internet, the worldwide computer information web, for people to have their say on council issues.

The council are currently setting up area committees across the borough, and a ten-page consultation document is now on their website for people to read and then send in their responses from their computer screens.

Council leader Derek Boden said the setting-up of the new area committees would improve public access to council operations, and improve local democracy.

"We are talking about important changes to the way the authority runs its day-to-day business and an opportunity for local people to be more closely involved," he said.

"We have had our website in operation now for only a short period but it is already proving to be very successful and popular," said Coun Mike Connolly, chairman of the council's information technology sub-committee.

"This is the first document we have put on our website, and I am sure it won't be the last." The document is on the Bury Council website, which is at www.bury.gov.uk

Anyone who wants to have their say on the document can reply via e-mail to J.Mason@bury.gov.uk or, if they prefer more conventional means, in writing to Jackie Mason, Bury Town Hall, Knowsley Street, Bury BL9 0SW.

The consultation document is available at all local libraries. Members of the public without internet access at home can "surf the web" on computer terminals at Bury and Unsworth Libraries.

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